Ag TALES
Tradition, Agriculture, Livestock, and Expertise series. Interviewing local and national experts, professionals, and families. Gathering the stories that build this nation from the dirt up.
Ag TALES
Lessons in Resilience and Agriculture with Utah Beef Producers Henry Barlow
Have you ever wondered what it takes to transform a dream into a reality, even when the odds are stacked against you? Our guest, Henry Barlow of Utah Beef Producers, shares his incredible journey from navigating multiple industries, such as concrete work and construction, to establishing a beef slaughterhouse in Sevier County, Utah. Henry opens up about the relentless effort, community support, and the numerous logistical and regulatory challenges he overcame to bring this ambitious venture to life. Prepare to be inspired by his story of resilience and determination.
Henry’s upbringing on a farm played a pivotal role in shaping his work ethic and life perspectives. He speaks fondly of his mother and father’s contributions to the household and how these experiences fostered his appreciation for agriculture. Despite starting with no experience in butchery, Henry's creative determination has led him to success in the industry. He emphasizes the value of family unity, working with one’s hands, and the importance of balancing ambition with the stresses of life. Henry's experiences offer valuable lessons for those looking to push boundaries and pursue meaningful work.
Lastly, we tackle the critical issue of mental health within the farming and ranching community. The conversation shifts to the alarmingly high suicide rates and the significant pressures faced by farmers and ranchers. The episode concludes with reflections on happiness, resilience, and the immense power of gratitude. Join us for an enriching conversation filled with life lessons, personal stories, and invaluable insights into the challenges and triumphs of the agricultural world.
Welcome to this episode of Ag Tales. This time we are interviewing Mr Henry Barlow of Utah Beef Producers, the new packing plant that has come online in Sevier County, utah. Stay tuned and listen in. We're going to hear where Henry's from and what he's doing and what drives him. He's an interesting guy, so listen in and share this with your friends. All right, henry. So the first thing that people always want to know about is who you are and what you do. You've been fairly, I would say, recognized across the state with just the projects you're working on right now, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to let you introduce yourself and who you are and what you do right now, and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 2:Okay so, henry Barlow, I live in Saratoga Springs and I have farms in Sand Peak County. Throughout Sand Peak County. There's several different pieces that I have and I'm a contractor business owner been in business in the state of Utah for about 37 years in window and door business, concrete construction, excavation, general contracting, a solar business, ranching and ranching has always been, you know, kind of a passion project. Haven't really been able to make a pencil financially and I think that God's brought enough cows into my life and cattle and land into my life that I can feel the pinch points that a lot of the ranchers and dairymen and farmers feel, and I feel like that's by design and farmers feel, and I feel like that's by design. I think that, uh, I really think that all of the, all of the things that I've been doing in my life have been getting me ready for what I'm doing right now, and including the resistance that I've had to encounter along the way in life and business.
Speaker 2:Um, at a time when there was a lot of bankruptcy, people went bankrupt, you know, in 2008, and lost a lot of things. All the financial people around me said you know, you just need to wipe the clean slate and go bankrupt and start all over. And I didn't. I didn't. I didn't file bankruptcy even though I had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of bankruptcies on me and my business that I had to, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of bankruptcies on me and my business that I had to turn around and pay for product anyway. It took me a decade to dig out from underneath that hole, but that was hard and it kind of prepared me for what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 2:So recently, you know, and I started in 2022, building a large scale slaughterhouse large scale for Utah, not large scale for Kansas, but large scale for Utah beef slaughterhouse and that was about an 80 to 90 week journey and a massive time commitment. And, you know, for me and for my family to be away from my family and come and build it here in Sevier County. Also, that was by design. You know Sevier County here in Richfield is for sure the right place and it's been evidenced by, you know, the support of the county and the city. Even the state of Utah has been really instrumental in just helping me be successful through just a really really hard push to make happen. I mean, it's not about just building a plant, you've got to go build a wastewater pretreatment plant, and then you've got to build a a waste treatment plant, and then you've got to bore underneath an interstate freeway, and I mean, the obstacles that we face and continue to face are they're big mountains, they're big mountains, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's uphill. Every step of building a slaughterhouse is uphill. Yep, it's not really a business that you can walk into and there's already a structure in place and that you know how to do it and you have all the support you need. You got millions of dollars that you got to pour into it and the approvals you need and the state support you need and the local support, and then at the end of that you've got to depend on cattle coming into the facility and making sure that end is prepared as well. Yeah, so, and we're going to, and we're and we're going to come back to your slaughterhouse and your business.
Speaker 1:It's just in 2024, we have a lot going on and I think it's touching a lot more than just cattle producers, and so, but before we get too far into that, focusing more on you as a person so you're from Saratoga, you said right and um, you've had all these different businesses and and so. So what led you into that kind of life? So what we're really looking at now is what was growing up like for you, like as a kid, what, what were you doing? What were your parents doing? What got you started down these roads?
Speaker 2:What were you doing? What were your parents doing? What got you started down these roads? Well, recently I was invited to speak to all the ag teachers in the state of Utah and that actually brought back some things that I had kind of shelved and didn't even remember.
Speaker 2:But had an opportunity to be a speaker to about 200 ag teachers in the state of Utah and it was really interesting because one of those teachers came up to me after that uh talk and he said you know, who inspired me to be an ag was your parents. And I said really and I mean I knew this guy growing up but I never even considered that he said, yeah, your mom and your dad was so patient with me and I mean I was a city kid and I just wanted to have my own calf and they'd come down to our little farm and so I didn't even consider that. But it really speaks to how the little things can really play such an important role. I mean, fast forward 35 years or whatever. That guy has been an ag teacher here in the state of Utah his whole life. He grew up and he was always in 4-H. What I saw was this guy, he just always did well in 4-H and then for him to tell me that it was my parents that inspired him to do that, that was kind of cool.
Speaker 2:So we, I grew up in West Jordan and it was just the sticks back in those days and we had just a little farm and you know milk cows and had horses and sheep and pigs and chickens and turkeys and you know a wide variety of just a little bit of all of it, and had one hell of a lot of responsibility. I mean it was just like, just like other guys growing up, they wanted to go play sports and screw off because that's what they watched all their buddies do. But we didn't and uh, we really, we really grew up without money either. We were, we were dirt poor and so it was uh, just that early struggle, um, even going back before that, an early struggle of um being the youngest one in my class and the shortest and the smallest one in my class and having a lot of health problems as a kid, super introverted I mean, two left feet couldn't even speak to somebody and that's why it's been kind of weird for me to even be on social media. Is I had to overcome that and just I mean it was really a decision of deciding I would not be that guy anymore as a kid.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, to overcome, to overcome, uh, my asthma when all my friends would love to go play and whatever, I mean, I was just hunched over, wheezing with asthma. So, to overcome that, I, I, uh, I ran everywhere I went and, uh, as a kid, going through, you know, from private school and then into the public school, into a damn mean school. I had a chip on both shoulders no kidding in eighth and ninth grade but I negotiated my way into getting two free lunches a day and getting everything that I could get my hands on. I was eating, and when I finally hit my growth spurt in 10th grade, I gained 30 pounds in three weeks and it's crazy to even think that.
Speaker 2:But, um, that's really duplicated in my son. I mean, he's a big, strong guy now, but he had the same thing. But anyway, that that was that initial struggle I so appreciate today. I appreciate the fact that, um, I appreciate the fact that I got bullied a lot as a kid and it gave me such a distaste for bullying that I'm not afraid to stand up to any damn bully. It is today and I think all those things enter into getting me ready for who I am today and what I'm up to today.
Speaker 1:I like that. So how? How many you said you were the youngest? How many brothers and sisters? Well, youngest in your class, my school class, okay, how many you said you were the youngest. How many brothers?
Speaker 2:and sisters, well, youngest In your class, in my school class, okay, because of where my birthday fell, oh okay, so not only that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was a little kid.
Speaker 2:I was the little kid. Yeah, people had me in my grades by 18 inches. I mean, I was just a scrawny little kid, you know, and I had severe asthma as a kid, and you know, in the hospital and had all kinds of problems that way.
Speaker 1:So you were constantly kind of trying to play catch up there for a while Big time, yeah. So what about at home? I mean, how many brothers and sisters did you have?
Speaker 2:So I was the fourth of 15. Oh, wow, yeah. So we had a big family, a lot of responsibility and, uh, we um, growing up on a little farm, everybody had something to do and it was just, you know, everybody had. I watched my dad, you know we um, we had a standing order for the first load of concrete out of the plant every single morning and, just as kid, I watched my dad with one other worker and his two sons just grind it every day and then we'd get done and he would go. He would go drive truck at night till usually around midnight, one o'clock in the morning, and we'd rinse and repeat every single day. You know there was a two year period of that. That we went through that and just just, uh, you know those were harder times for a lot of people back then.
Speaker 2:But I watched him. I watched him do impossible things and at a time we had no money and his dream of building a shop. I thought how's this ever going to happen? I mean, he has no money and his dream of building a shop. I thought how's this ever going to happen? I mean he has no money. But I watched him go to work and at a time when his brother, as a brick Mason, could not even buy a job. I mean, there was, there was times that people can't even appreciate that today, of how lean times were. But when he, when his brother, couldn't even find work, he actually would split the money that he made and his brother would come and work on his shop. So he found a way like even though he had no money and didn't have the time because he's working two jobs, you know to provide why he still found a way.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of people that probably don't. There's a lot of people that don't gig hard enough, but there's. There's always answers, and they're not always the answers you want, but they. They are doors, and not only that, a lot of people like to walk through doors that are too tight or uncomfortable or require more work. And I think that one thing you said really kind of hits on a difference between then and now, where we say can't even find work, and I think finding work back then is different than what is looked at now. From now you can, you can turn in applications from your couch, and that's not really looking for work.
Speaker 1:You know, I imagine back then, same with my dad you go around and you find a job on your two feet. It's something you can do and get done. It was a different time, big time and a real struggle. And then have to come home. I only have two kids and I can't imagine coming home to 15 and looking that in the face every day trying to figure things out. So what about your mom? What did your was your mom? Stay at home, mom, or what did your mom do? She run the farm with you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was a stay at home mom and she found stay at home jobs. So I mean, in addition to doing everything she's doing, um, she, she found ways to contribute financially to our family and she was, as you can imagine, extremely busy and she was the long arm of the law at our place because dad was gone a lot and even when us boys were old enough, we would go with that and we would work. You know our summers and weekends and evenings and all of that contributes to who we are and I think that's one of the good things about I think that's one of the good things about agriculture that I see is that it gives people an opportunity to get their hands in the dirt and create and, no matter who you are and where you are, um, it's a more healthy long-term environment to get your hands into the dirt in some way. So it doesn't matter if you've got a job and you're writing code, you have got to get out of that office and you got to get outside and you got to get your hands in the dirt and you got to get outside and you got to get your hands in the dirt and you got to go produce something. I mean, today there is so many people that have jobs and you have to actually ask yourself, what am I producing? And so when we have a job like that, uh, it's okay, and you need to go find something else, some other way to produce something and give something back.
Speaker 2:You know, if you have eight hours of capacity and you're all spent, really is that who you want to be in your life? Yeah, because because people you know people that are going to go do big things. They're going to eight hours. Match that up against somebody who's going to go really lean on life. They're going to put in three eight-hour shifts. So, no kidding, they're going to accomplish more. No kidding, they're going to go places and they're going to have more stress in their life. And it's by design. I mean, all of us are going into the pine box when we get done with this life and I think some of us will have regrets. I don't want to go at the end of my life with a bunch of regrets that I didn't lay it all on the line and just give it everything I got. So that's just how I think. I think it's a better way to live.
Speaker 1:I like that and you know, when you're talking about agriculture, you know there's we see a lot of families involved in it. Right? So you had, you had a family of 17 people that were involved in agriculture together. Yeah, there's not a lot of jobs today besides agriculture where you can do some, where you can still accomplish something, where all of you can be working on the same thing or have a hand in the same pot at some point, and I think that's a really good, not only for yourself individually, but for the family unit itself. It's good to be there together. I see a lot of families that are good families, including ourselves, that we try and reach each other through Facebook or Skype or that's how our family gets back in touch some phone calls but I'm really jealous of those families that wake up and they work together and they eat together and they go to bed together and then they repeat it. That's just such a good way to live your life. That's a full circle way of life too.
Speaker 1:So now, with that in mind, looking back at at you know your upbringing and and the different jobs you've had and what you've created up to this point. If you were to take a snapshot back and would you imagine yourself where? I know you said it prepared you for where you are now. But if you were to walk back 20 years, would you imagine yourself where? I know you say it prepared you for where you are now. But if you were to walk back 20 years, would you see yourself doing this right now. You know, could you imagine it right now?
Speaker 2:No, not even. I mean, from all outward appearances, henry Barlow has no business, even being in this game. I mean, he's never owned a butcher shop, never been a butcher, never been any part of it, nothing. I mean there's, what in the world has he been doing in this industry? And maybe it took that kind of a naive background to be able to just see the need and go figure out how to fill the need.
Speaker 2:Because I mean by elected officials I've been told that you know, when I do things that are, you know, I I advance when all the lights aren't green and somebody says to me well, you're the one that, you're the one that started without having these two things figured out. And I'm like, uh, excuse me, I started without having 102 things figured out. And that's the difference A lot of times with the private sector and the public sector is the private sector that's going to go get things done. They have to go be creative and move ahead. And if you waited for all the lights to turn green, I would not have 31 people that I put to work right here in the Severe Valley, in little town of Richfield. We've got 31 people to work already. When I said a few months ago when I said thousands of cattle are not going to have to leave utah anymore because of what we're up to. That's coming to reality and so I am delivering on what I say I will do.
Speaker 2:And it is sometimes inhibited by other people that you rely on that don't do what they say they'll do. But you know we always find a way and we keep pushing and that's just like life. No matter what kind of a job you're in I mean everybody's everything is still everything. You know the story of the widow's might and and, whatever, whatever level, anybody that's listening to this, whatever level people are at, if, if my story can touch them in such a way that it inspires them to turn up their intensity 20%, that's then it's successful. But if it doesn't, like if the people that interact with me aren't better because of that time that they spent with me, I don't feel like I've really accomplished my mission. So, whether it's an employee, or whether it's the interaction that I've had with you, or the ag teachers, or the farm bureau, or the beef council or all of the many cattlemen I mean, if it doesn't produce good fruit, it's not. I'm not doing my job.
Speaker 1:I like that outlook because you know, um, I, I, I served a an LDS mission down in Mexico and I remember the guy running it. The president of the mission told us it was something probably most people would be offended by today, but he said be a little bit better than you were yesterday, just be a little bit better somehow. And I don't think a lot of folks like hearing that, but truly it was more. The was more of the fact that don't be better the same way. Don't work, work on just one thing every day. Just be better somehow.
Speaker 1:You know, if you got up and you thought, man, I could get up a little bit earlier and maybe read a little bit or I could do a little exercise, do that tomorrow. Be a little better somehow tomorrow. And and and constant improvement. And I guess I relate that to what you said, because you're looking at putting something in and getting something out, but always putting something back in Right, because someone else can benefit from that. If someone learns from that, then they can start to do the same thing. When you were talking about the eight-hour shifts, we have a lot of jobs today where we put stuff in but we don't really produce anything from it and that kind of makes us takers right Absolutely, and there's different ways to get it done. I mean, the world is changing in a lot of different ways, but the nice thing about agriculture, at least in my opinion, is people still got to eat.
Speaker 2:People still have to eat. Well, that's one of the reasons why I trademarked Salute the Rancher and I was actually pondering one night at the plant, sitting alone after you know, 15, 16 hour day, pondering the day, and I like, I like to do that to kind of try and gather up the gold nuggets that happened for you during that day. And I'm sitting there thinking about it and I'm I'm considering my, I'm considering my nephew who took his own life in suicide, and I thought about all of the problems in the world and the suicides that we have and super tuned in to the fact that particular week I was made aware of what a massive problem it is in Sevier County. Like I had no idea it's such a big problem. And then I got looking into it and found out that in the ag, in the farm and ranch community, suicide is about double Okay. So when I trademark salute the rancher, it really has multiple tenants in that. But one of the things that it was it spoke to me is that most people don't realize that one and a half percent of the population feeds 98 and a half percent of the population.
Speaker 2:And although I have I come from and have a lot of military. Um, people in my circle with sons and son-in-laws and dads and uncles and things, I mean I can count 20 in very close proximity. Nothing taken away from that. But in the military you go get your 10% discount at Home Depot and you get your. You know, thank you for your service. Well, when is the last time that we said to the farmer, the rancher and the dairyman thank you for your service? So I trademarked Salute the Rancher and of course we put that on our boxes of beef that we ship out. But it really speaks to that and it also speaks to the fact that in the farm and ranch community to address the whole suicide, double the national average and whatever is that each one of us have something that we can do. It's true that you can go get sent off to some government program or whatever, but think of how much we could do when we recognize that early somebody struggling and just say you know what, jump in, you're riding with me today and just go, let them be in your space.
Speaker 2:Um, I think there's a lot can be done in that and so I've used that to as a platform to speak to that and a lot of times growing up, I mean the, the area that we come from, and anybody who's 30 to 60 years old why you just didn't talk about that stuff. Because you didn't talk about it? Because it was a shame to the family. It brought shame, you know, because somebody took their own life. Well, today, I don't think you can even look around and not see. Almost every single person has been affected by that. It may not be in their own family, but it's in a relative or it's in a coworker, it's in a friend, and so it's a real thing and I think when we speak to it, it gives us back our power. The other thing that's delicate about that is is that when you look and you see and you observe a suicide, they don't come in ones. Yeah, they always have a second or a third, and so life's a pressure cooker, no doubt, and we have different mental pressure today than our grandparents did.
Speaker 2:For sure, we live in a distracted world and there's things that we can do to mitigate that, and it's the face-to-face contact. I mean, we've got to manage our devices, and even though we can connect to somebody on Facebook or Instagram, we can listen to a podcast, we have got to push ourselves out of the house, out of the office and go have a relationship face-to-face, and we've got to recognize and be willing to say the things that somebody's going to roll their eyes and you're going to appear dumb and your words are going to flumsily fall out of your mouth and just go say it anyway. I mean, if you're inspired to just say something hard or, you know, tell somebody how much you care about them. It might seem really odd to you but you could really make a difference to somebody you know and we've had over oh heck, I bet we've had before our grand opening, I bet we had a thousand, two thousand visitors. I mean, it's crazy. You saw, yeah, how many people would come in and one day we were talking about this and back in the back there's a guy about my age and you could see his eyes just wailing up with tears as we were talking about this.
Speaker 2:And, uh, after we got done because there was a group of about 25 people there that day, I kind of noticed that and I I went, talked to him and he shared with me that his own father took his life and it is everything that he even thinks. He doesn't even know if he can hold it together, that he is trying hard to hold the family farm together and you know. It really spoke to him, you know, and he said he wanted to get one of our hats with the salute the rancher on it. The point is that it meant something. He was able to actually talk about it and say those hard things. I think that those of us that haven't had it right in our own immediate family we don't know what's around the next bend. Life's a pressure cooker. We've got to do what we can to be the best version of ourselves and go try.
Speaker 1:So I don't even know how we went down that rabbit hole, no, and that's kind of stuff that people want to talk about and that's kind of stuff that people don't like to talk about. Yeah, and several different episodes on this podcast, something's been brought up that is not what people expect to hear. And I say I should say the beauty of agriculture but just for myself, particularly the. I work in extension and the beauty of that is I get to see the agriculture and I get to meet the people and I get to and I get to be in their homes and and hear their stories. And I get to and I get to be in their homes and hear their stories. And I tell you this I mean, whether it were to get me in trouble or not, I spent a lot of time Getting to know these folks before I start working with them and some of the stories I've heard are just mind boggling. Guys and gals and children have to just have present in their life while they're just trying to live.
Speaker 1:Blows your mind with the amount of output they give back to society, right, the amount of stuff that they're able to produce and do every day while facing. You know, my wife's dying. My mom and dad aren't here anymore, and you know. But going back to what you said, addressing something and saying what it is, my wife always has said one of the beauties of psychology, or talking to a therapist or something like that, which we've started to really try and encourage ranchers and farmers and dairymen to do when they can. The beauty of it is it may.
Speaker 1:The problem probably isn't going to go away for a long time. It probably never will go away. But there's a difference between having a monster in the in a dark closet and seeing that monster in the light, and a lot of us don't like to open that door. So that door is a scary, scary thing for a lot of people and when they actually talk about it, when they have someone like you that says, hey, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing, let's bring some stuff out here, let's talk and let's touch lives, At least now someone has faced the monster or helped someone do it and now they feel like there's someone on their team, you know Um. So so I applaud you for that, because a lot of people um don't notice that in other people, they don't take the time to see those struggles Um well, there's certain things you can do in life that give you back your power.
Speaker 2:And I'm telling you that when you have something that complex and that complicated and you won't speak to it and you become introverted I mean your outward signs of how you carry yourself is truly a measure in inward what's going on and when you can, you know, breathe it in deep and shoulders back, chest out out, chin up and just go like walk into it and face it and speak to it. Those are all outward things that you can do that actually help set you free and it gives you back your power, no matter how damned hard the thing that you're facing is. And we have to. I mean, for heaven's sakes, in all of the things that I've told, all of my circle of influence is coming back to me, magnified, like 400%. I can't even believe how everything that I've been saying and doing and you know I like to, I like to teach my family you know that you need to have, you need to create your own, basically create your own gospel Like what is your story? What is the gospel? It's God's story, what is your story, what is your gospel? And it's your words to live by.
Speaker 2:And I think that if we gather up the golden nuggets that happen for us throughout the day and throughout the week and that happens by actually getting away from your electronics and creating some think time and if you are looking for the gold, by the end of the week you're going to gather up a sack full of gold. If you're not, you're going to still have a sack full of something. Yeah, but it ain't the gold. Yeah, if you want to regurgitate every damn bloody, bad, evil thing that's happened for you, then that's what you're going to pack around. And if you want to have, you know, consider the things that you hear and what inspired you and what stuck to you and who did you meet today of a sudden, when a person starts shifting from being a victim.
Speaker 2:Those are the little steps that we can do in life that actually raise us up and help us to go be somebody. I mean, go give something away, go give it back. You put in eight hours and you live in a cubicle. Good Fine, go help somebody on their project. No, you don't know how to plumb and do electrical and wire and weed a garden or whatever. Go do it. Just go be there in that space and just go give of yourself and give time. You know it's a natural principle, that you know it's biblical that we give back and we produce more than we consume.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to be said about it. Consume there's a lot to be said about it. I think ranchers and a lot of ag folks find this really cool. When, for example, you have an intern or a kid come work for you. That is like where are you from, wait, you're from Guam, you're from Highland, you're from the Philippines, what are you doing here? Well, you're from Highland, you're from the Philippines, what are you doing here? Well, I don't know, this isn't even my degree, but I wanted to see it and that is so cool for us to see. And what does it create? There's one thing that it always creates it creates, in my opinion, joy. It creates opportunity.
Speaker 1:But something that people are not very good at creating anymore is laughter. You don't hear a lot of it anymore. You don't hear people being able to ease back because we're so on the throttle. And what you said about electronics, I think, is one of those major drives to that. We're on the throttle constantly and we're not really driving ourselves anywhere because there's no material object, material gain coming back right when we're creating stuff in the space that we can't even see.
Speaker 1:And something else that you said I thought was pretty neat reminded me of when you were talking about just how you carry yourself and how you stand, my dad used to say to us in the morning he said he would kind of especially my little brother, but he would yell in our room and he would say what kind of day is it going to be? And he expected to say it's going to be a good day, dad, it's going to be a good day, and that was just how he. He did everything. You know, it's going to be a good day, no matter what. If you started your day saying that and you started your day doing that thing, you wanted to do the least, getting it out of the way, it was a dang good day. You know, yeah, um, and so, and you do see that, and I, and, and and.
Speaker 1:Before we move on, I think it's important to touch on when you, when you talk about that outward appearance of people and noticing people, um, as I've gotten older, even myself when I've struggled or seen other people struggle, you can see it, and it's not always. You're not looking for some mysterious look in their face if they're, if their clothes aren't ironed or if their it's not always. You're not looking for some mysterious look in their face If their, if their clothes aren't ironed, or if their hair's not combed, or you're like man, when's the last time you brushed your teeth? Those are a lot of signs that people are just barely getting by. They're, they're waking up, they're getting their clothes on and they're going to work, but they're not waking up and, and you know, at the sunrise and taking a nice shower and having a nice breakfast, and you know there's a difference there, and usually that's a big sign that someone's having a hard time, you know, and not taking care of just themselves.
Speaker 2:Well, a lot of times we grow up thinking that the big things is really what's going to shape my life and the little things don't matter. And the older I get, the more it's absolutely opposite of that. It's the little things that really shape your life. Everybody's looking for a big change and you're not going to win the long game. Looking for that it's managing your daily rituals. It's what you do anywhere, is what you do everywhere. Your daily rituals, it's what you do anywhere. It's what you do everywhere. It's dressing for success. It's getting up and acting like wonderful things are going to go happen for me today. And and walking into your day with that amount of confidence and you actually draw those things right towards you. Some things do happen and they're just damn hard and that's okay. You'll get through it and God keeps putting men and women in your life to be able to help you through it. And it's interesting because God works through men and women of the flesh and anybody that's followed me on the journey of building the plant know that I call it a journey of miracles and it truly is a journey of miracles and I'll use that platform to be able to talk to people and, you know, get them to realize the value in understanding that there is a creator and he cares about us and loves us and wants us to. And I'm going to say things that you know as a, as a school teacher, as somebody at USU, you know you probably get told, yeah, you don't need to say you shouldn't be saying that, hey, this is me and I do not care, I will call it out and I'll say those things and I'll I'll get told whatever. And that's the thing that is different today than 30 years ago is you can control your own narrative with with social media, you don't need to have somebody edit what you're saying and whatever, and you can say dumb things, but it's, it's raw and it's real and that's that's important.
Speaker 2:I think that it's really important, as we decide who our circle of influence is, that we don't take advice from somebody who's more messed up than we are for crying out loud. I mean we need to in life. We need to surround ourselves with people that are. If we want to be up to big things, we need to go be around people that are up to big things, and if we want to live a life that's screwed up and introverted and whatever, then that's who our circle of influence is going to be.
Speaker 2:But at some point, if you're not there to help somebody get up out of the mud, if you're not there with that express purpose, then you need to make separation from those people and so that you can actually get up out of the mud and God will put men and women into our lives every single week. It'll help us if we will, but it's still. Agency always trumps. I mean, the opportunities will open for us, but we have to do the work, yep, and we have to show up. And those, those are things that I've realized on a scale 400 percent, um, building this plant. I mean, for a guy that's been able to be at home on the ranch with the family my whole life, I could not do this without being there and just showing up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's been really magnified to me, and that's true of life, and that is how you show up. It's going to make the difference. So, as we talk to different people that are listening to this, why, whatever, whatever you're up to, these same principles work, no matter what you're growing or building or doing or the hard experiences that you're having. You know God's got a lot of good people ready to help.
Speaker 1:There are good, then there are prepared people and there are people that are pushing hard, you know, and and you got to surround yourself with people who are willing to push, you know, and go into that with that mentality of I'm not here to just benefit, I'm here to push, push along.
Speaker 1:Right so, and we probably already know the answer to this, but, but even if we wanted to dive into something even more specific, the next question that I ask guests on this podcast is you know, I believe that we can harness a lot, that we can hold a lot, that we can think about a lot of different things and there's a lot that we can attack. There seems to be a common thing that I end up thinking about One thing or one theme. I guess I should say Something that's really keeping me up, or it's that first thing that I think I've got to get that done, I've got to figure out how to do that, or I'm worried about this, or I'm excited for this. Do you have something that you have, something that you find yourself coming back to all the time right now?
Speaker 2:Uh, I absolutely do, and I can't share everything that I. I wish I could share it because it's it's super important to me and it's been right at the front of what I think about and what keeps me up at night and has done for a lot of weeks, and I can't share those things right now, today. But I can say that I regularly try to use the tool that I believe works, and that is the tool of gratitude. And I think gratitude is the tool I mean it really it's, it's the key that unlocks your toolbox. Whatever you've gathered up in your life, that you pack along with you in that toolbox of life, that thing remains dormant and locked up without gratitude. When you have gratitude about what happens for you, it draws good things to you and it'll help you through those hard times. It draws good things to you and it'll help you through those hard times. And, believe me, there are some mountains that I actually don't know how to solve, everything that's in front of me right now, and people don't do what they say they'll do and they let you down and it puts you in a bad way and yet somehow, in spite of all that, I have to keep my game face on and keep the right mental attitude, and I've got to stay engaged in the things, the principles that I know work, and one of the things that I've, you know, taught my kids and people around me is don't say you can't. The things that I've taught my kids and people around me is don't say you can't.
Speaker 2:Ask yourself, how can I? And when you actually control the words that you say like you've not heard me say that happened to me. You've heard me say that happened for me. So just replacing that word. It causes you to quit being a victim and gets you out of that, gives you back your power. It causes you to quit being a victim and gets you out of that, gives you back your power. And when you ask yourself questions, instead of looking at yourself and feeling how picked on you are because somebody didn't do what they said they'd do and it's really screwed you bad, you have to put yourself in the space of creation, and that is by asking yourself the right questions how can I? And then how can I put you in a creation mode? And then somebody's name pops into your mind and all of a sudden you have an advocate that to help you, and it's agency always trumps. We get to choose. That's the most important thing. So we can choose into being a victim or we can lose. How to learn, how to exercise the tools and ask herself the right question and it'll draw out the good answer. So I can't share with you some of the mountains that are in front of me right now, and there will be a time in the future that you'll understand why there are some big ones.
Speaker 2:But I realize that everybody has big mountains. I mean a good friend of mine who's been on this journey with me. I mean he worked with me for 20 years and he's been one of the really key people building this plant. Yesterday morning, 5.30 in the morning, we're loading out of my shop and everything and he doesn't even tell me what's going on with his mom. But so we leave and we get down here to Richfield and'm 30 minutes out and I get a call and there's some damn hard things going on with his mom. You know she's had to be rushed back to the hospital and surgery.
Speaker 2:And I get here to the plant and I'm like are you okay? Your mom needs you, you need to, you need to get out of here. And he turned around to her right back home. She passed away yesterday, and so everybody has something that they're facing and they're damn big mountains and I mean, my big things are big things, but your big things are big things to you. And the point of the story is is that every single one of us have a mountain to climb, and they're things that we don't know how to solve. But the reality of it is is those things are happening for us and it's going to make us stronger and make us better, or it can push us into the dirt, and it just depends on how we pitch that rudder, which way it's going to turn us.
Speaker 1:Yep, so I like that. I, I truly like that, because you know it's, you know it's. I remember thinking to myself before I left for Mexico, I had to get up in church and I had to give a talk to everyone and I kept thinking you know, what am I going to talk about? Because the way the short story of my life is that baseball was going to be my career, that was going to be everything for me. It didn't go that way. I went in and I started playing college ball and I got hurt and it turned my whole life in a different direction. And um, but I remember thinking that you know, my family's really struggling right now and I don't know what I'm doing, but I am glad that I'm doing this. And that was the first time in my life. I thought I'm grateful. You know, I'm actually grateful. I don't know what I'm grateful for yet, but I'm grateful that I have this direction.
Speaker 1:And the talk that I got up and gave was titled after another guy. It was called An Attitude of Gratitude and it just changed my outlook. It just really changed how I approached those next two years of my life, which were still hard in a lot of different ways, but I have come back to that and I've remembered giving that talk. I've remembered thinking hey, you know, there are a lot of things that I have in my life that aren't done yet, but I can count them right now. I can count them and how grateful I am for them and for me that's fuel. That's fuel to do something else. And so I guess that leads to the last question, which is and I don't know if there's a difference between these things, but the last question I always ask everyone is are you happy? Would you consider yourself happy in what you're doing? Are you happy?
Speaker 2:Well, it's a loaded question, Ethan. I mean, yeah, happiness for one person is bliss and sitting on the beach drinking a Mai Tai or whatever. Is bliss and sitting on the beach, drinking a Mai Tai or whatever. It's different for every person. And I would say this there are times of extreme joy and happiness and that is not from what is happening for me personally.
Speaker 2:Extreme joy and happiness to me is the people that I meet along the way and like the relationships. Happiness to me is watching a family work together. Happiness to me is with me being gone as much as I am, without even being asked. Our garden's out of control. With all the things that we've had, like this year, our garden's out of control. Happiness to me is watching my son come in and giving all the kids a responsibility I never even asked him to do it and giving all their kids a specific responsibility of okay, this is, you know, take back the garden and we're going to go do this. And happiness to me is the pictures that I got texted to me yesterday of how this person owned that stewardship, and this was the before picture, this was the after picture and it's initiatives.
Speaker 2:Happiness to me because you know I'm first and foremost. I mean I'm a parent and I'm a husband, a father. Happiness to me is when you can see that your family's making progress. Happiness to me is the relationships that we get to build. Relationships that we get to build and I can say that I don't do a good job of showing it. I think sometimes my family would ask me that question Are you happy, dad? You're right, because it's no doubt. It's been a walk of fire that I'm going through, even still to be gone and having you know. It's a great big stewardship. It's a hell of a lot to take on and there's no easy way through it, but there are moments of peace, happiness along the way. So if you say, are you happy? You know every day at times but I'm not the guy that you know goes around carefree because that's not my life and by design it's not my life.
Speaker 2:Joy, you bet, taking the horses out and pushing the cows and rounding them up, and that with the, you know, with the family for sure. Yeah, stuff like that. You know, spending time. That's not always work, because I've been a whole bunch about work, but you know, when my son, when my son was 17, I told this story at the uh, the 200 ag teachers when my son was 17,. I told this story at the 200 ag teachers when my son. It was so funny because when my son was 17, he had a chip on both shoulders. All this responsibility. And why the hell do we need all these animals? Dad, you know, I just want to go play football and I want to do. You know, I want to go live the life like my buddies get to live. They don't have any responsibility, they don't have to do anything.
Speaker 2:And when he was 17, he wanted to join the Marines and I said no, I'm not signing for you to join the Marines at 17. I says when you're 18, you make your own choice. Well, well, his mother and I was gone on a trip on his 18th birthday. He went and signed up, went in the Marines, and I remember what I told him when he went into the Marines. I said, son, you don't even know all of the seeds that have been planted inside of you for 18 years. I says but there's going to be a day when you begin to understand happiness. You want to know what happiness is. It's that phone call six months in when he calls up and says dad, can I talk to you. Yeah, go ahead. I just want you to know, dad, I want to do it just like you did it. That's happiness Because, as going into the Marines, it wasn't hard for him to rise to the top.
Speaker 2:He became a squad leader right off the bat and he graduated the boot camp. Now he's guide, he's overall the squad leader. So as a 19-year-old kid, he's got 400 men reporting to him and he saw, with all of that, he saw the value in those 400 men of who touched ag. In those 400 men of who touched ag, it built good men, it makes a difference. And the people that had more savvy and the people that had more initiative and the people that were more willing. Now that's speaking collectively. So if anybody here is listening to this, and oh, you don't have to be a victim because you didn't grow up in ag. No, you go create that on your own canvas. But that's what he saw and I was. It was funny because I was telling, I told that story To these teachers and I had several people, several teachers, come up after I got done talking and we broke up and you know and tell me thanks for your stories and everything.
Speaker 2:And these two teachers come up and said what's your last name? I said Barlow and they said you wouldn't be Levi's dad, would you? They were the teachers, they were his teachers and they saw that kid you know as a senior in high school and they just, I mean, we got such a kick out of it and they're like you nailed it. That's you know. That's Levi for sure. But so there's moments of happiness through our journey and satisfaction, and certainly when we see those around us that we care about a lot overcome their own trials. To me that creates a lot of happiness yeah you know, I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think that happiness may be the a deep enough word for that question. You know, really it really comes back to again are you grateful, you know, are you very grateful? Because there's um, there's a lot to be said about being in the middle of a struggle and being grateful or being happy. And when you look around and you think, man, like us, we just got out of college and whatever, and we're figuring things out and you still rent or you're still trying to find a home or whatever. But you can look around and you go, man, I'm sure grateful, I wouldn't trade Right and I wouldn't, I wouldn't change a thing, you know, and I wouldn't give up what I've got, not not for anything, and to me that that's deeper than happiness, you know.
Speaker 2:That's being okay and that's and that's, and that's being able to say, yeah, I'm, I'm good, you know that just triggered something for me, um, for anybody that's renting or thinking good grief, when am I going to get mine?
Speaker 2:I remember when I was in that space and I can tell you one of the tools that unlocks your dreams for you, and that is for you to write them down and make a drawing, paint a picture like those are tools that will unlock your dreams for you, literally.
Speaker 2:If it's a ranch, or if it's a car, or if it's a motorcycle, a house, if you can visualize it and imagine it, it puts gas in your tank and if you can understand how powerful that is for you to have a written goal and a picture that you paint one more brushstroke on every day.
Speaker 2:You know, if it's a house, then in your mind, every single day, you imagine one more thing about that house, like what color is the front door and how will I have my kitchen and what will my backyard look like, and you and you keep your mind in that creation process. It makes you have more capacity and if you think you have eight hours capacity today, when you start unlocking those tools, you'll get done with your 14 hour day and you've got more gas in your tank than your circle of influence that you're hanging around with and you'll be like, hey, now let's go cut Mrs Jones weeds or whatever. You know what I mean. It's just things like that help you along the way and it will make the difference of you overcoming and creating that for you in a much shorter period of time. That's just a tool that works.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people, I think, will benefit from this because, again, saying that you know things are different now than they were before and and, quite honestly, the truth of the matter is that here in the United States, we have the ability to do a lot. You know, we're we're sitting here, we didn't have to ask anyone's permission. I get to upload this without permission and, uh, it's. It's because we, we live in the country we do, but the country we live in right now is is isn't a lot of a lot of upheaval and a lot of good things and bad things and confusing things for a lot of people. But I think where people will benefit from this expressly, this episode with you is stepping back and evaluating themselves and saying, okay, where you know, where's my initiative right now? Where's my drive? Do I have the capacity to do this? Well, and the answer is yes, but are you? You know, are you ready?
Speaker 1:And you know, I would encourage the folks that are listening to this to go and, you know, not only find out more about the Utah Beef Producers Packing Plant, but also get to meet Henry and his staff, because they are doing a lot of pushing. They've pushed through a lot of barriers. They've talked to a lot of people and I think you'll be hard-pressed to find someone in the state and at this point, the region, who hasn't heard the name Utah Beef Producers or Henry, and that speaks to the groundwork that's being laid and the connections that are being made. So is there anything else that you want to leave folks with or anything that you'd like to say?
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but you know, I just I guess, if I, I just I guess, if I gave you one arrow to put in your quiver through all of the things we've talked about today, it would be my ask for each of us to turn up our intensity with gratitude. I mean, gratitude is the key that's going to unlock the toolbox for us so that changes lives. It changes lives and helps us out of our slumps. It gives us back our power. So gratitude, that's what I would wrap up with.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it and I appreciate having you on here and, you know, again, share this episode with your friends. We covered a lot of good stuff in this episode, and and and and. People benefit from listening to successful people and driven people, and definitely you're one of those people, henry. So so thanks for being here. I appreciate it, thank you you.